Clovers... Card Tricks? Done!

Another finish!  I am thrilled to bits to say this one is done!  This quilt is made with some April Cornell fabric from Moda that I got at the" by the pound sale" last summer.  Fabric company samples, sold by the pound at my fabulous local quilt shop once or twice a year.  The border is also some April Cornell that I bought as a remnant.  Perfect!

I used a Figtree Quilts pattern called Clovers.  It is essentially the block called card tricks.  I did not read the pattern carefully and messed up on not trimming the little blocks... blah blah.  Long story.  Anyway, the result is my points are wonky.  Heavy sigh.  Does it still look pretty?  You bet!  Did I learn something?  Yes!  Does my mum love the quilt?  You betcha!  So this quilt is going to go and live with Mum.  It measures about 65" x 65".  It is stippled all over in white and backed with a lovely yellow check sheet with one strip of the border fabric down the centre.  It is bound in a woven plaid from the same line of fabric that I just happened to have. It is a very pretty quilt.  And it is done!  This was also the last item on my list for the Finish it Up Challenge!  Wahoo!

I see a lot of husband feet in quilt photos.  Husbands often get recruited to help hold quilts.  This is a picture of my husband's hands.  He was recruited to pound some nails into the barn wall so I can have a semi-permanent display wall for finished quilts on the barn.  He is just soooooooo helpful!!!

I am going to link up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story... check out the other lovely finishes! 

Farmer's Wife Blocks... trying to get ahead

Block# 8 Bouquet

Block #16 Calico Puzzle

I have been trying to get a few blocks ahead because I have a funny feeling once I am back to work and school starts up again, I will be very, very busy.  I made these the other morning.  I have to say that the Bouquet block is a particular favourite of mine.  I think it is just cute!  Again, all my blocks are made from scraps.  Bouquet has some Sandi Henderson prints and Calico Puzzle some scraps of Sanctuary.  

And other than that it is a lovely, breezy, sunny, and warm first day of August.  The Card Tricks Quilt is now quilted and awaiting the selection of a fabric for binding.    Such choices!

Have a lovely rest of your day!

Card Tricks Two Ways

First of all, the flowers are blooming like crazy so picking a bunch for a friend was quite delightful.  I had them sitting on the counter ready to go as a hostess gift and Husband was searching all over for what was making the stink in the kitchen.  MEN!  I pointed out that I had picked flowers.  They did not stink.  They smelled like wonderful, perfumed flowers.  MEN!  I was playing whist with my card ladies this afternoon.  I adore playing whist.  We have been getting together now for about a year and are self taught whist players.  It involves an incredible amount of laughter but most importantly good fun while visiting and being silly and eating good food!

Card tricks also factored into the picture today another way, with me breaking out the gardening gloves and stippling my card tricks quilt.  I think this one will end up living at Mum's house.  She is quite taken with the colours.   I am quite happy with my stippling on this one.  It seems the more I do this, the more I am satisfied with what I feel it should look like.  Just like with whist, I am a self taught.  I did check out many free motion quilting tutorials on line, especially Crazy Mom and Oh Fransson's tutorials, but it really just involves a whole lot of practice.  I quilt all my quilts myself.  It is just what I do.

Flea Market Finds on a holiday long weekend

It is a funny state of affairs when many of your flea market finds come from your mother's linen cupboard and/or your mother's rag rug stash.  Among other things, I have a huge stack of vintage sheets.  Husband asks, "More sheets?" I do keep using them either in quilts or on the back of quilts.  And yes, I did find more sheets this morning.  

On the way out this morning, we saw a big black bear!!!!  Not far from home. The bear went up and over a fence like it was nothing.  Very agile for such a big animal!!!  I did not, however, have my camera.  Darn!

Mum's finds:  Fire King bowls, Pyrex and her Jadeite Sugar Dispenser!!!!!

Mother found some awesome deals in her thrifting adventures today, including a Jadeite Sugar Dispenser.  I am filled with envy.  It was purchased for a grand sum of $2.  Crazy!!!

I also have a lovely tin of old buttons and stuff.  Mum found those at her local thrift store for me.  She asked for them and the nice volunteer lady kept them aside for her.  So sweet!  And some other sewing notions from this morning including a box of dressmaking pins and a card of shirt buttons which are apparently both "washable and attractive" !  Interestingly, I paid the exact price that the pins originally sold for - 25 cents.  And if you look closely next to the dice, there is something that might be an old sewing machine bobbin?  Notice the lovely red buckle!

And I leave you with a picture of our big woods on this sunny summer day!  This is exactly where bears like to live.  : )

I will be linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds and with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday on Monday!  Check out the other thrifty finds!

FLEA MARKET FINDS

Week 6 Finish It Up Challenge and we have a quilt top!!!!

It is week 6 of the Finish It Up Challenge hosted by Meg!  Oh my goodness, I am that close, I can taste it!  Yes,  we have a quilt top and this just happens to be the very last official item on my list!!  High five!  Click heels in air!  I will take care of the back, the sandwich, the quilting and the binding this weekend.  This quilt has been like a bit of an albatross around my neck because it started life as my decoy quilt in May so that I had something to blog about while making a gift quilt.  Then I realized that the blocks just were not cooperating.  Then I realized it was because I messed up in not trimming the little squares during construction.  ARGH!  So here we are.  It looks pretty good but to me, I can see wonkiness.  I am going to celebrate that and just love it because it is such darn pretty fabric.  So here is my sneak peak on my wonk-tastic card tricks or Clovers quilt.  To hear more about wonk, take time to check out this post over at wienerdog tricks.

Here is my list...

My work in progress list includes...

1) Paper pieced scrappy string quilt 

2)  Clovers or Card Tricks quilt ( now a quilt top!!!!!)

3)  Sparkling Cider Vintage Sheet Quilt

4)  Fresh Flowers Quilt (only just cut out!!!)   Now a quilt top!

5)  A hexie pillow cover

add ons to the list...

6) Vintage sheet quilt in blue

7) Farmer's Wife Quilt Along  (week 9-20 blocks finished and ahead by 2 blocks)

8) Doll quilt and pillow for Mum's donation


I will be linking this up with the the other Finish it up quilters over at Meg's!  Check out the great finishes for the week!

Happy Friday!

Summer Fair Black Currant Jam

I entered a quilt in the Summer Fair yesterday and just like all great old timey summer fairs, you need to have some great jam on display too.  Yesterday, I used the black currants that Husband had so carefully picked and made our favourite black currant jam.  There is something just so special, unusual and intense about black currants.  Just brushing up against the leaves of the bush, sends up a fragrance that is both astringent and perfumed.  Eating a fresh black currant is also an experience.  Not everyone likes them.  But once they are cooked, the flavour is transformed into something that has to be experienced.  Full-bodied, somewhat winey, and definitely magical.  Full of vitamin C.  Excellent on a scone or your favourite sponge cake.  Fabulous on toast.  Makes you think you are eating something that is incredibly rare and expensive.  

Check your farmer's market if you don't have any of your own.  Pure yummy-ness in a jar.  

Black Currant Jam

4 cups of black currants

1 1/4 cups of water

Boil 10 minutes, stirring, then add 2 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, bring to a boil and boil hard for 10 more minutes.  Skim off the foam.  Bottle in prepared jars and seal.  Makes about 4 small jars of goodness.

Check out the quilts and recipes at the summer fair!

Sunflowers for Summer... Summer Fair Quilt Show!

I made this quilt as a gift for our daughter's university graduation this past spring.  When I saw that Gen X Quilters were hosting a Summer Fair Quilt Show, I had to think about which quilt to enter.  Considering this is one of my favourite quilts for so many reasons and considering sunflowers shout "summer", I thought this should be the quilt.

Our daughter is our sunflower girl.  She loves sunflowers and always has.  I have kept and scrounged sunflower fabrics over the years because of her.  Some of the fabrics in this quilt are scraps from sundresses I made for her when she was a little girl.  I also added a few more "modern" sunflower fabrics to round out the selection.  I knew that I had the fabric but then I had to decide on a pattern.  I did not want the quilt to look too country or too something.  I was taken with Elizabeth Hartman's Kitchen Window quilt in her book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  This is a great book by the way!  And it seemed perfect to showcase the sunflowers in a modern quilting way.  Framed in Kona black and floating in a yellow Kona solid, stippled all over in yellow, I am just so pleased with how it turned out.  I backed the quilt in a striped sheet with a strip of sunflower print to tie it altogether.  And the icing on the cake was how delighted our daughter was when she opened it at her graduation.  Probably my favourite quilt gift to date.  Here is the quilt, next to our woods, this past May.

Have a wonderful summer and check out the other entries in the Summer Fair Quilt Show!